And The Beat Goes On...

I can now add my electric razor to the list of items that have turned on me and/or vanished into thin air. As of today, I still can't find the water feature pump, the stove is still acting janky...at least the garage doors are behaving, for now at least.

The electric razor disappearing is particularly troubling as I normally keep it in the glove box of the car. That way, on mornings I'm running late, I can grind it into my face as I careen down the hill in my car on the way to the train. I can't stand being unshaven, even on weekends, as stubble makes my face look fatter than it already is. Not having my electric razor as a backup means I have to be on top of my game and wake up earlier to shave my puffy face...

Maddy and I made a Sam's Club trip over the weekend. The Beatles 'Day Tripper' was playing and I noticed Maddy had her 'thinking' expression going full bore. I asked what was on her mind and our conversation went like this:

Me - 'Maddy, whatcha thinking about?'
Maddy - 'This song, it's called 'Day Tripper'.
Me - 'Yep, this is 'Day Tripper'...
Maddy - 'Why did The Beatles write a song about grandma?'
Me - 'What do you mean? I don't think this song is abo...'
Maddy - 'Grandma doesn't like to drive at night, she has to take her trips in the car before the sun goes down. That means she's a day tripper, just like in the song.'
Me - 'I've never thought about this song in that way, that's an interesting interpretation.'
Maddy - 'Yeah, kids hear things differently, papa. You should listen to what we have to say.'

And with that, we arrived at Sam's Club...and I was once again amazed at Maddy's take on the world around her.

The entire family made a trip to IKEA over the weekend as well. I've called IKEA the WalMart for the hipster doofus set in the past, and I will continue to do so. The only thing differentiating IKEA's cheap imported inventory from WalMart's cheap imported inventory is perception of country of origin. Does anyone think that IKEA would be as popular with the ironic t-shirt and skinny jeans crowd if they realized the BILLY was probably manufactured in China alongside the WalMart furniture? I swear, even though IKEA posts country of origin, most of their customers believe their press board shelves were being manufactured by happy blue-eyed Swedes and not Chinese laborers. It is this perception that allows IKEA a pass from the same people that rail against WalMart and their 'cheap, Chinese' furniture. Ignorance is indeed bliss.

Anyhoo, IKEA - we needed three more chairs as the girls are done with the little kid table they have been eating at. Maddy and Jossy are tall enough to sit in normal chairs (well, Jossy is close...) and Katelyn can't deal with sitting at the kid table by herself. We had purchased chairs from IKEA four years ago to match the Pottery Barn table The Better Half received as a bonus from work. TBH could have purchased chairs from Pottery Barn as well, but PB wanted $160.00 per chair while IKEA had similar chairs at 1/3 the price. So, we bought two...I guess we thought the girls would never sit there or something. Well, the girls are all grown and we bought two more chairs to match the original chairs and a junior chair for Katelyn. The chairs are of decent quality, but assembling the junior chair took about 20 minutes, mainly due to the piss poor instructions and illustrations and partly due to the girls wanting to 'help' put it together.

Navigating the IKEA labyrinth to get to the chairs was excruciating. Not only was their always a throng of shoppers in the way, the slack-jawed employees seemed to be mindlessly milling about. It was bizarre...they just wandered in groups of 2-3 down the aisles with no particular place to go. By the time we reached the self-serve warehouse to get the chairs, I was seething, especially since the chairs we wanted were not readily available on the warehouse shelves. I tried tracking an employee down, but they all disappeared on me so I had to take matters into my own hands. I scaled the shelves and found the boxes I needed, shoved them onto the rollers, and placed them in the cart. All of this was more or less a gross violation of IKEA policy, but I was ready to get out of there...so it was either I take self-serve a step further than policy dictate, or I take swings at random people out of pure rage. I think we are all better off that I chose option one.

Happy Memorial Day to all those that have served and appreciation to the fallen. I'm at work, watching as 18 wheeler after 18 wheeler pulls into Qwest Field with U2's gear for their upcoming show....Bono's ego will be trucked in separately later on this week...I hear that's a double trailer rig.